Bitter Claims
by MsJonesKing
Summary: Rose Sanderson hated Phryne Fisher with a passion, and she couldn't help but dwell on it as her world fell apart. Rose's thoughts at the end of Episode 2.012.


**I imagine Rose being incredibly bitter during Ep. 2.012. She seemed so frustrated with Phryne's involvement in the case and I think she must have felt like Phryne was ruining her life.**

**I do not own the characters from Kerry Greenwood's work or the plot developments from the TV show. **

As she stood gripping the wood of the station's counter, Rose Sanderson felt her heart break.

_It was funny_, she groused bitterly to herself, _since she had been convinced her heart would never again be broken by any man she dared to love. _Now her heart had been shattered by not one, but two, men in one night. Turning at a slight noise behind her, she saw that woman and scoffed on a sob before quickly spinning back to face the wall and gain some semblance of control.

Was there something wrong with her? She glared at the shelf in front of her nose as if the built-in would somehow dry her tears if she could just stare it down. Why was it that her luck with men was so bad? Well, Jack at least hadn't been a bad man - not like Sidney and evidently, her father. All the same, it felt like a trend: love a man, and the man would inevitably morph into a person she no longer recognized as the one she had fallen in love with at the beginning. _Damn them_, she wailed inside and squeezed the wood until her knuckles began to turn white.

_And damn that Woman_, she thought on a rather large sniff. How dare she intrude on this moment of grief with her perfect hair, devil-may-care attitude, and pitying eyes? Rose (because really, she hated it when peopled called her Rosie) had seen all she needed to of her to know that the Woman felt sorry for her - Her! Days ago, she would have laughed (probably maniacally) at the idea that the Woman would pity her. What could she have possibly pitied about Rose? Her rich, handsome fiancé? Her well connected father? Her rather bright future? No, Rose definitely would have laughed to scorn the idea that the Woman would pity her. But now she felt that pity as if it were the scourge of a whip across her back.

Rose hated Her.

She hated Her for uncovering this…this evil that Sidney had engineered like any one of his other shipping interests. Rose loathed Her for revealing her dear father's complicity in the whole hideous matter. But perhaps most of all, she despised Her for doing what she had to Jack.

Days ago Rose had told Her that She had made things worse for Jack. That had been a blatant lie, and Rose knew it. Hell, she knew better than maybe anyone else that She had brought Jack back from the veritable dead more than anything (or anyone) else.

Rose remembered loving Jack when they were both young. A gorgeous constable under her father's supervision - how could she have resisted? Her father had seen a lot of potential in the serious but fresh-faced constable and had told her so. She flirted just a little with any on-duty constable when she came to see her father at the station. She'd never seen any harm in it. All of them were so gallant and handsome in their uniforms. It was enough to turn any girl's head. But really, it had never been anything more than a lovely daydream for her. No matter how she flirted with the constables and lavished attention on them in her fantasies of being rescued by such brass-buttoned saviors, she didn't take it seriously. She knew that wanted fine things in life. And she knew enough about her father's income to know that she wanted much more than a policeman's means for her ideal social standing and wardrobe. Of course, she had never said anything of the sort to her father. He was proud of his position in law enforcement, and she didn't want him to feel that she wasn't satisfied with what he was able to provide. She had adored her father as a young woman, and would never have said anything to him to make him think she didn't appreciate him.

And so, when her father had taken her aside one evening and hinted to her that perhaps she might pursue something besides idle flirtation with Constable Robinson, Rose hadn't hesitated. After all, her father had never led her astray before then. She put aside dreams of marrying a man of means and set her hopes in the constable that her father told her would undoubtedly quickly rise through the ranks of the constabulary.

To her surprise, she had enjoyed getting to know Jack Robinson. As her father had hinted, Jack had career ambitions beyond lowly constable and a mind to match. Ever the gentleman, his manner toward her brought her pleasure in feeling like a much-treasured queen in his presence. He respected her, listened to her, and doted on her. Being handsome to boot, there was really no reason for Rose to object to him. So she slowly felt herself falling in love with Jack Robinson, much to the beaming approval of her father. George Sanderson's absolute blessing of the match from the start made it that much easier for Rose to say yes to Jack each time he asked her to step out with him, dine with him, and eventually marry him. She, like her father, saw a bright future ahead of them as Jack rose through the ranks to become a respected member of Melbourne society and Rose, the bright jewel on her husband's arm. No, she would not be titled, but she would move in those circles with an influential husband who cared for her. What more could she ask for? As if fate (or her father) was rewarding her for her decision, Jack was promoted to Senior Constable only a month after their nuptials.

Then the War had come, and Jack had enlisted. At first, Rose had been flabbergasted. Why would her husband enlist now, when his potential was shining through on the home front? Jack had answered that he needed to do his duty, and he would feel ashamed not to do so. Rose also couldn't understand why he would want to leave her when they had just begun trying for a family. Was she not enough to hold him in Melbourne?

Only her father's insistence that Jack's service would serve him well in his standing with the police force (another promotion?) had assuaged her fears. Jack's going off to war wouldn't stifle his rise to glory in Melbourne but only aid it. So with the glow of a woman in love and certain of her husband's triumphant return, Rose saw a uniformed Jack off to war. Before departing, he had given her assurances of his love, fidelity, and constant thought. She had given him a hearty kiss and the promise to be waiting eagerly for him.

Waiting had not been as hard as she had anticipated. All she had to do was remind herself that Jack was doing the right thing for them. He was serving with honor - an honor that would surely be recognized on his reappearance in Australia. Whenever she felt chills of uncertainty and dread from reading too much news of the War, she sought out consolation with other wives whose husbands had left for the Front. They all chattered aimlessly about pretty things while ignoring the extreme possibility of death. She would go home feeling better, remembering that there were beautiful things in the world, and dreaming of the day Jack came back.

When Jack did return, Rose had been overwhelmed by a love she hadn't really felt for him since they had first begun stepping out together. It must have been true that absence made the heart grow fonder, because Rose found herself at the train station with a swelling sense of adoration and pride in the man she had married. Eager to be reunited, Rose had actually run to embrace him in a rather undignified manner. Although he embraced her with all the fervor of the man she'd married, Jack had come back from France a very different man than when he had left Melbourne. Rose discovered he was more somber, reserved, and most horrifyingly of all - less inclined to seek advancement.

Oh, he was no less sharp, but his desire for promotion for the sake of rank had dwindled significantly. He would serve on the constabulary with the same grave determination with which he had served on the Front: the determination to do all that was honorable, just, and right. Yes, he looked like the Jack she had married (in fact a more refined, chiseled version), but his unwillingness to engage with society was a sticking point for Rose. He was impatient with her desires for standing, and his devotion to his job began to replace his devotion to her when he began to feel that she didn't understand him. And she hadn't…she really hadn't. She had been waiting for her husband, and he had never returned from Flanders Fields. Instead, he had been replaced with a man who cared for her in a completely different way. Yes, he loved her, but not as a jewel or a queen he wished to swan about town. He loved her as a partner, and in this regard, she always came up short since she hadn't experienced the horrors he had. He couldn't lean on her, and she wasn't willing to give over her shoulder so completely as to bow out of the social game.

Eventually, they just drifted apart. He worked longer hours, and she spent more time with her friends. By the time he had made Detective Inspector, she had no real interest in any promotion he might receive because it really didn't affect her any longer. She still had her father, and he had made Deputy Commissioner. In fact, she had no real interest in Jack at all. He wasn't the man she had married, and she rather resented him for taking up her time and effort. However, she was content to remain married for a time. She wasn't planning on making an effort to salvage the relationship, but there was no sense in utterly ending it if she had nowhere else to go.

She only asked for a divorce when her father had re-introduced her to his godson, Sidney Fletcher. Here was a man who looked at her like she was a woman to be desired and wasn't put off by the ring on her finger. He was rich and had prospects for a bright future. She had no qualms in calling Jack and informing him that she would be filing for divorce. He had no problems with agreeing with her plan of action (apart from the break in his voice). She had always known that Jack would do whatever she asked; that, at least, hadn't changed.

What had changed, though, was Jack himself. Ever since the Woman had come to Melbourne and begun dabbling in police work, Jack seemed to have shot back to life like a plant that had finally emerged from frost-hardened earth. Not only had he seemed to have returned to life, but he almost appeared to be thriving, blossoming into a greater creation than the original. There were times when she ran into him and, even on Sidney's arm, Rose had needed to remind herself that she no longer loved Jack, no matter how mature, sure-of-himself, and strong he was.

Of course it was a horrible sort of irony that once she had given the man up for dead, Jack had arisen a changed being at the hands of the Honorable Miss Phryne Fisher.

It was another, more terrible type of irony that the man she had chosen to replace Jack had been apprehended by none other than that she-devil. It seemed as if it might be that Woman's sole purpose in life to prove to Rose that her decisions regarding men were always hasty; her assumptions, always wrong.

And so yes, Rose hated her, because while she thought she had been giving up a maimed man for a whole, flourishing one, Miss Fisher had chosen the underdog and still come out on top.

Brought back to the present by the click of a door, Rose turned to see her father emerge from Jack's office.

"Rosie-"

No, despite her love for her father, she wouldn't give in this time. Just as he had given her permission to pursue Jack and then Sidney, he had given Sidney permission to deal in slavery. Who was he to make these decisions that ultimately ruined Rose's life?

With a shuddering sob, she looked to Jack once her father had been pushed away. She saw his eyes flick to the Woman, and she made her decision. She knew Jack would do the honorable thing. And she desperately needed the shoulder of a man she could trust. (There suddenly seemed so few of those in her life.) So she turned to him with a wail that shocked even her, and sobbed into his suit. Over the din of her blubbering and Jack's deep soothing voice, she barely heard the door of the station close. Although she didn't smile (she wasn't sure that would happen for a good long while), she did feel a hollow sort of triumph.

Miss Fisher may have resurrected Jack, but Rose would always have a claim to him.


End file.
